SuSE 11.2 Updates and kdesu command

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1

Hope someone can help.

Not sure but has support and updates for 11.2 come to an end?

Every monday morning i make sure i’m upto date with updates etc.

This am i get a message saying “repo not available” and having looked online to see if the directory openSUSE_11.2 exists, it doesn’t.

At the same time loged in as a std user i regularily offer the command kdesu kwite.

the command is accepted without error and the cursur returns on a new line as expected but kwrite doesn’t start.

I’m guessing that my last update has left me with a broken OS.

It doesn’t seem very long at all since i installed 11.2!

Any response and help much appreiated.

Mark

2

Oh Dear as i feared, 11.2 has reached end of life allready!

OK but i’m left with a broken OS! well insofar as i now have to login as root to get things done.

A question, how do i now disable 11.2 from automatically checking for updates?

Just found another problem, i can no longer get yast either logged in as a std user.

I’m guessing that the problem is, its failing to display the authentication dialog box for root access.

Is it possible to uninstall a past update giving me back these features?

Mark

3

Why don’t you simply upgrade to 11.4?

For the future, check this: Lifetime - openSUSE

4

Hello gropiuskalle,

Too much work involved after such a very short time since i installed 11.2 which was within a week or two of release.

Web server with 32 virtual hosts, ftp server, samba etc etc

Getting various apps to work properly was a nightmare inc plugins for firefox, flash, java and mplayer were difficult.

Until sometime this last week everything was working excellently.

i had to install 11.2 3 maybe 4 times before i got it right with much help from this forum which was excellent.

Don’t fancy going through it all again and again and again.

If i can disable the OS from automatically checking for updates, i’ll log in as root to edit my hosts file etc for the next few years.

I’ll wait for SuSE 12.00 or until i am forced to upgrade because of some incompatibility issue with samba and a future M$ OS.

5

Two options:

  1. upgrade the system to 11.3 or 11.4
  2. switch your repositories to evergreen and keep 11.2 alive

I posted this to another thread and copy it here:

You can use http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Evergreen
and keep your 11.2 alive. You will not have all repositories available for
newer versions and if you want to use for example libreoffice you need to
install it maybe without repository, but libreoffice offers generic rpm’s
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/, for other software it is a similar
situation (Firefox 4 for example)

What you really need to do is:

Change your main repositories to
http://download.opensuse.org/evergreen/11.2/
ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/discontinued/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/
ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/discontinued/distribution/11.2/repo/non-oss/
ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/discontinued/source/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/
ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/discontinued/update/11.2/
ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/discontinued/distribution/packman-11.2
http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/Evergreen_11.2/

in addition the packman repos for 11.2 are still alive here
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/11.2/

and remove the other repositories you have now (they are no longer there).

–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram

6

Hello martin_helm,

Thank you for your reply, i may very well do that however i don’t to risk breaking things anymore than they are.

So i’ll wait for a while and see how others get on.

Mark

7

Web server with 32 virtual hosts, ftp server, samba etc etc

Do I get you right - this is (amongst other things) a server? With a connection to the internet? With a GUI? Which you rather do not want to upgrade because it’s too much work for you?

Security is quite an important parameter, you know. Might save you from other nightmares.

8

On 05/23/2011 12:06 PM, akwe-xavante wrote:
>
> Hello gropiuskalle,
>
> Too much work involved after such a very short time since i installed
> 11.2 which was within a week or two of release.

if you want a longer term system there are several available, some cost
more than others, and some are kinda free…speaking of free, how did
you pay back the open source community for all that “help from this
forum which was excellent”?

just be sure that machine has ZERO access from the internet or any
potentially black hat on a local net…best of all would be to unplug
it from all networks…otherwise, you just put another ‘bot’ up for use…

an unpatched, unprotected free linux machine is almost as crackable as
the very best M$ sells…

–
dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP via openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10]
Dual booting with Sluggish Loser7 on Acer Aspire One D255

9

Hi,

When i installed SuSE 9 i upgraded to 11.2 and during that time the only problem i had was myself.

All the servers and virtual host websites are controlled exclusively by myself, all usernames and passwords are bizarre very very long mixed up random upper and lower case letters with numbers and access to the ftp, Ssh and samba servers are restricted to specific ip addresses requiring authentication.

Everything is automatically backed up daily.

Backup backup backup and if somethings not broken don’t fix it.

I don’t have a problem installing 11.4 or any of the servers, its getting other apps in and working. In 11.2 getting java, adobe flash and reader, k3b and mplayer and avira working was a nightmare. To be fair getting k3b working turned out to be an incompatibity issue with the burner in the end, changing it resolved the problem.

10

“how did you pay back the open source community for all that “help from this
forum which was excellent”?”

I have helped here on this forum in the past and on others, i contribute to the apache mailing list, but my knowledge of Linux in general is very limited indeed, i also contribute to a number of forums for M$ OS based problems.

Worked out how to disable updates, so for now i’m sorted.

11

On 05/23/2011 01:06 PM, akwe-xavante wrote:
> java, adobe flash
> and reader, k3b and mplayer and avira working was a nightmare. To be
> fair getting k3b working

none of those things should even be on a server used to host websites…
especially not on an unpatched server.

–
dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP via openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10]
Dual booting with Sluggish Loser7 on Acer Aspire One D255

12

“none of those things should even be on a server used to host websites…
especially not on an unpatched server.”

Why!?

13

On 05/23/2011 01:36 PM, akwe-xavante wrote:
>
> I have helped here on this forum in the past and on others, i
> contribute to the apache mailing list, but my knowledge of Linux in
> general is very limited indeed, i also contribute to a number of forums
> for M$ OS based problems.

thank you for your contributions to free and open software…

i understand your distaste for the rapidity at which openSUSE moves…it
moves too fast for me also…there are open source and free
alternatives that have longer lives…CentOS is one, i’ve not checked
but i think Debian and Slack also move much more slowly…

and, for a LOT less than it costs for a M$ solution you can get
something like SLES which goes for five or seven years…solid (and,
some of the folks here know as much about SLES as openSUSE…plus there
is a whole 'nuther forum just for the enterprise product)…

hey, i’ve got no stake in that company…make no money if you buy a
thousand seats…just mentioning a few solutions to the short cycle VS
run it unpatched dilemma…

please, don’t do the latter…it is irresponsible.

–
dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP via openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10]
Dual booting with Sluggish Loser7 on Acer Aspire One D255

14

akwe-xavante, there are some very basic things about server administration you obviously do not know.

Backup backup backup and if somethings not broken don’t fix it.

The thing is: before you even find out about an exploit, it could already be used for an attack. Servers are constantly attacked every day, it’s not a question of “if” or “when”. It happens. The “don’t fix it unless it’s broken”-way of administration sounds fine, but in real life it’s just wrong.

Why!?[/QUOTE]

Quite simple: the more processes are running, the more can be attacked, thus a good administrator tries to lower the number of processes to the absolute minimum. For example a server should definitely not have a GUI, because all that’s necessary to control it can be done via a terminal. A GUI means dozens of processes. And I don’t even want to start with stuff like K3B or the Flash-Player on a system that is out of support. Jesus, this is just… words fail me.

akwe-xavante, you write yourself that your knowledge of Linux is rather limited. A server, on the other hand, should be handled by someone who knows his ways, knows how to read logfiles, how to secure a system (complex passwords are just one way of securing a system), how to keep it up to date in the best manner etc. Do yourself a favour and shut this machine down, this will save you from lots of troubles.

15

I started with SuSE and as a whole i think its a fantastic distro.

I haven’t the time to relearn a new distro, extremely busy.

Does 11.4 install all the plugins for Firefox by default and ask for the acceptance of a licence agreement on first use?

Getting k3b working again shouldn’t be a problem now i have a compatible burner.

Getting the servers up and running again overnight shouldn’t be a big problem.

Getting Avira in and working is a pain.

I may be tempted to try installing 11.4 onto a different hard drive overnight one Saturday night / Sunday morning.

If the system was open to many users and websites maintained by different people where they were using stupid usernames and passwords i’d agree i’m being irresponsible.

I am the only one person that has access, usernames and passwords are extremely strong, authentication can only take place from a small number of specific ip addresses. Everybody else trying to login gets a completely different box altogether where there are no users other than root and access is restricted to local access only. They can attempt to login forever as there are no users to login too, they are not attempting to login to the machine they think they are.

When i logged onto the machine this am to do updates and check various log files i found that updates had an error and later discovered that the command kdesu was broken.

I thought i had a problem with updates to discover to my surprise that support had stopped so soon. I know it happens and i was very surprised it has come to an end so soon, time really does fly especially for busy people.

I have disabled automatic updates and i’m happy to continue using 11.2 as it is for the foreseeable future. If time allows in the future i will try 11.4 on a different drive.

Some people may feel that what i’m doing is irresponsible and they may be right.

I have achieved what i wanted to achieve, i now know that support has come to an end and i have disabled auto updates.

I’m not happy about that but for now that’s all i can do.

This thread has gone off topic now and i’m as always very grateful for everybody’s responses, there comments and help but i must now move on and won’t be continuing with this thread, i have to work.

Thank you all again

16

On 05/23/2011 02:06 PM, akwe-xavante wrote:
>
> Why!?

how would you like to have your door kicked in, and be hauled off to
jail because your machine is being used to distribute kiddy porn…

read around some, like http://tinyurl.com/4x3uk4p

smarten up and secure your server.

sure, eventually you could probably prove it was not your kiddy porn
distro project…but, until you do you better hope they put you in a
cell where the other inmates can’t rip your private parts off…

–
dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP via openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10]
Dual booting with Sluggish Loser7 on Acer Aspire One D255

17

Wow! This is exactly what I needed to relieve some stress about the
Parallels issue we were discussing in another thread. I am anxious to
go to 11.4 but everything I need still has to work. This will let me hold
on while I try VBox (and others if that does not work).

Thanks!

  • Itai
18

Thought i had to reply to this one, then thats it from me:

"how would you like to have your door kicked in, and be hauled off to
jail because your machine is being used to distribute kiddy porn…

sure, eventually you could probably prove it was not your kiddy porn
distro project…but, until you do you better hope they put you in a
cell where the other inmates can’t rip your private parts off…"

As part of my work i have helped the local police authorities in such circumstances and what you have described above does not happen sadly, i wish it did

19

idanan wrote:

>
> Wow! This is exactly what I needed to relieve some stress about the
> Parallels issue we were discussing in another thread. I am anxious to
> go to 11.4 but everything I need still has to work. This will let me
> hold
> on while I try VBox (and others if that does not work).
>
> Thanks!
>
> - Itai
>
There are some notes to add after I tested it:
You need to use
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/11.2/
(still alive)
and
ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/update/11.2/
(still alive)
the discontinued versions did not work for me.
The server at ftp5.gwdg.de tends to disconnect you sometimes (timeout with
an error message box) and you have to press repeat that it continues to
install packages.
But everything went well with my test install of evergreen.
(and read the evergreen link it has some additional infos).
All in all the migration of a 11.2 machine to evergreen was without pain and
done in half an hour)

–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram